The API Advantage for Android and iOS Application Developers

In the mobile application world, going to market quickly with the core features your users need is critical. That's why we created the Nylas API, to help developers build the mobile application of their dreams without having to worry about the communications layer.

Developers building mobile applications use the Stripe API for payments, the Twilio API for SMS, and the Nylas API for email, calendar and contacts. Nylas's email API,contacts API, andcalendarAPI power Android and iOS applications for companies like Voiply (the cloud-based phone system) and Haystack CRM.

HaystackCRM, a mobile-first CRM for contact and sales pipeline management, built scheduling & calendar sync into their application with the Nylas API.

Now users can choose to connect their calendar accounts to view and schedule events within HaystackCRM.

(Haystack Calendar Sync)

Build Calendar Sync in Weeks, Not Months

In just one internal hackathon, it took one engineer a single day to build out their powerful scheduling tool by simply using the Nylas Calendar API as their framework. The result was a powerful scheduling tool that united all users’ calendar synching, regardless of platform.

Feature-Rich Calendar Functionality

They also built out feature-rich functionality that provided everything a user would want in to schedule meetings. Users can fully create, read, update, and delete calendar events in real time. As a result, all users are able to quickly book and cancel appointments, set appointment reminders, and even view cross-platform productivity analytics — all within the iOS app.

Key Takeaway: With a powerful calendar API, your team gets a headstart building other core features while reducing devops hours.

Email Sync on Android for iOS Devices

HaystackCRM also uses the Nylas API to remove friction from their CRM-to-email integration. They needed to find a way to integrate their CRM within Office365, Outlook.com, Exchange, and IMAP email providers in a way that scaled with their business. Using the Nylas API has given HaystackCRM more options of email management beyond the initial offering. Features powered by the Nylas API allow HaystackCRM users to maintain a level of comfort of using previous email addresses, email clients and calendars while moving forward with HaystackCRM.

(Haystack Email sync)

Two-Way Email Sync

The Nylas email API provides seamless two-way email, calendar, and contacts sync between a single user’s inbox and the customer’s CRM. From there, users could compose and send emails from within the app — saving a wealth of time by minimizing the need for context switching and eliminating any need for manual data entry between the CRM and the app.

Group Email Accounts

The customer’s app was also better able to create more sophisticated email-to-CRM synching features. For instance, with the aid of the Nylas email API, CRM users could great group email accounts to enable quicker and more efficient collaboration across the team. For instance, if a team member was on vacation or out sick, any team member can simply log into the app and see recent customer interactions right within the app.

Key Takeaway: While there is often a great deal of complexity when it comes to developing features for cross-platform CRM integrations, an intuitive API allows developers to build powerful, new CRM features on the fly.

Contacts Sync for Android and iOS apps

VoIPLy provides simple and reliable phone solutions to help businesses serve their clients and customers better. Their cloud-based unified communication system is packed with more than 60 powerful phone features, enabling users to do business anywhere, anytime.

When customers click on contacts, the application integrates with Nylas to sync all of their contacts. VoIPLy has also created a Calendar App for their phone system, in which enables the system to read off events on calendars to callers.

(Users Authenticate Contacts Sync via the Nylas API)

Up-to-date Contact Profiles with Contact Sync

The Nylas Contacts API syncs profile information from user's contacts books to mobile applications and back. If a profile photo, email address, physical address, phone number, or any other critical information is updated in the user's address book, your mobile application is updated immediately as well.

Quick and Friction-Free Integration

Using Nylas docs, integrating the API was virtually instant. Within a week, the developer team was able to pull together a proof-of-concept and deploy the API into their production environment.

Key Takeaway:The right contacts API dramatically shortens your feature development time, ensuring that you are building the most dynamic contacts-syncing functionality possible — and quickly.

These are just a few of the many use cases our customers are using to evolve their email and calendar functions within their applications. Are you ready to transform your Android or iOS application with Nylas? Get started here.

About Author

Serena Malkani

Serena is our Developer Relations Manager. She is also an organizational psychologist and spends her free time leading music meditations and playing with her puppy.